Sand and Stone
by Javan Ryder
Summary: "Trouble's just the bits in between!" Series One, between the trouble. Nine/Rose.


I'm new to this universe (Series 2, at the moment), but oh. Nine was _fantastic_. This is me hoping to do him justice.

Bit at the start there is from Issue #621 of A Softer World. I saw the text applied to Nine/Rose, and… just, yes. Yes.

* * *

_i love the way your face lights up  
when someone says  
it might be dangerous_

* * *

She's sleepy and rumpled still, rubbing at her eyes when she comes into the main room.

"Well," he says, straightening. "Where to, today?"

Rose drops into a chair, tosses her head back and laughs softly.

"Anywhere," she says. "_Anywhere_."

"Good." He smiles. "Hoped you'd say that."

* * *

"So where are we?" she asks, as they step into the sunlight, hand-in-hand. Then she goes very still. And then: _"Oh."_

"Prettiest sunset in the universe!" he announces, beaming. He lets go of her to trot on out in front, standing against the skyline and spreading his arms. "Or so I'm told. Maybe not, there's lots of sunsets. But this one is nice, anyway."

And it is. The sky is all sorts of colors, pink and red and streaked with orange, staining the rolling ocean shades of twilight, and Rose makes a breathy, disbelieving sound. It's several seconds before she speaks (seven, because he counts them).

"_Wow."_

"You like it?"

"Well," she says, with a huff of laughter, sinking down to sit on the sand with her legs stretched out, "Obviously."

"Good."

He sits down next to her, and she glances at him sidelong, leaning back on her elbows. "Why are we here?"

"I thought you liked it?"

"I _do_," she says. "But usually with you it's… monsters, and… and doomsday, and… robots. Not sunsets."

"Not every day is monsters," he says indignantly. "You want to see the universe, I'm showing you. So here's the possibly-prettiest sunset."

"Oh."

"Okay?" he asks, lifting an eyebrow at her.

"Okay," she says. And smiles. "Yeah, okay."

"But some monsters in between," he clarifies, and her eyes roll.

"Well of course. They seem to follow you around, they do."

"Not everywhere," he retorts, looping his arms around his bent knees. "No monsters here. One hundred percent monster-free, this place. Just you and me and the sunset and-"

A distant scream pierces the air, shrill and panicked.

"…and maybe a few tiny, little monsters," he says, sheepish.

Rose sighs and throws him an admonishing look. "Well, that was nice while it lasted."

* * *

She runs under waves crested in frost, on a frozen sea, with frail moonlight in her hair.

Her fingers graze the sculpted swoops of water, trail along the edges where ribbons of seaweed hang suspended; the icy ocean stretches to the edges of the sky, and shore is just a faint line in the distance where they are, out among the massive waves. The tides are locked in place mid-fall, foam and all, and her bright eyes drink in each in turn-

And then it's off to another, her shoes skating over the slick surface of the ice. Sometimes she slips a little, gasping, her arms wind milling briefly in an effort to stabilize herself. She doesn't ever quite fall, though almost.

_Careful,_ he thinks, and doesn't say. They are never careful.

"What d'you think?" he asks, stepping closer. Rose laughs, turns, grins at him.

"This is… It's…"

"Fantastic," he finishes for her, beaming. "Isn't it?"

"_Yes,_" she exclaims, and slumps back against the curve of a frozen wave, laughing still. "What _happened _here?"

And he tells her, about the storm and the sun and everything else, though he knows she won't really listen. It's not about what happened, it's about what is. Right here, now.

When he's done she says, "Okay."

He grins. "Yeah."

"So it just… it _froze,_" she says, wonderingly. She twirls in the moonlight, pushing her hands above her head. Her breath frosts cold in the night air, wisps of smoke. "Middle of a storm, it just…"

"It froze," he confirms, and reaches for her. Her fingers tangle in his, both hands, smaller than his and slender and strong.

"What are we doing?" she asks, blinking up at him, though she doesn't pull away.

"_Dancing,_" he replies, and guides her to an open stretch, a flat plane between the waves. "I know how to dance, remember? World doesn't end when the Doctor dances."

"There's no music."

"Sure there is." He tucks a hand round the curve of her waist, holds the other up high, feels the light pressure of her fingers against his shoulder. The moonlight glints cold off the ice and throws frosty light into the air. "Listen."

She does, intently, going all still. Then she shakes her head. "I don't hear it."

"Don't you?" he asks, stepping smoothly into a slow dance. "It's the ocean. Birds. Waves. You can hear the echo, if you listen. It's not always been like this here. This is just a moment in time."

"You're full of it," Rose says, but she's smiling at him, letting him lead the slow, purposeful dance to the imaginary music.

"Sort of, yeah," he agrees, grinning.

She tilts up, presses her forehead against his briefly, her eyes bright and wide and shining against the dark. "Thank you," she says.

"For what?"

Her hand skates against his cropped hair, curls against the back of his head, and her lips ghost against his cheek. She waves a hand at the frozen storm as she pulls away. "For this."

"Better with two," he reminds her warmly.

* * *

They stand in the dust, side by side, with faded sunlight in their eyes.

She says, "Where are we?"

"Dead world."

"Dead… What d'you mean… What's that mean, 'dead'?"

"It means dead. Empty. Dried up. No more people. Just this."

"Oh."

They stand quiet.

"Who were they? What was this place?"

"Doesn't matter."

Her face twists. "Doesn't it? They were… they were _people, _they…"

"Are gone. Maybe they were tyrants. Maybe they were peaceful. What's it matter? Just dead and gone now. Dust in the wind."

"They were _people. _I mean, aliens, whatever, but _people._"

"Lots of people are people."

"What happened to them?"

"Some disaster, I'd guess. Happens to everyone eventually. Apocalypse. End of days. Invasion, famine, disaster, plague. Everything has it's time and everything-"

"-dies."

"Yes."

They stand in alien rubble, fallen buildings and broken bits of metal and piles of ash flurrying in the wind. Rose stoops to pick something up, something burnt and broken and twisted, something that might have been a child's toy. Her brows crease, and she throws it back.

"Why are we here?" she says, crossing her arms.

"You want to see the galaxy."

"Well, yeah, but this…"

"This is part of the picture," he says, and doesn't say anything else.

* * *

The canyons stretch deep and empty, beyond their range of sight, cracks in the ground massive and mortal.

"Wow," Rose says.

He grins. "I know."

"No, I mean… _wow._"

Her hand wraps automatically around his when he reaches for it. "C'mere. Got somethin' to show you."

He takes her to the edge, and they glance down together, their toes on shifting earth right _there _where the break in the ground begins, and he hears the breath lodge in her throat, imagines the thundering of her heartbeat, but she stays next to him.

They look down together, into the cavernous depth, and the slanted sunlight hits the layers of rock and lights them up multicolor.

"A whole planet," she says, wonderingly. "And it's just split open."

"Yep."

"Wonder if it ends. If it ever ends," Rose says, looking down in. She kicks a rock over the edge. It clatters against the edge and falls away, into oblivion.

He thinks, _everything ends._

He says, "Maybe not. Maybe it goes on forever."

There's beauty in not knowing.

"Come on," he says, tugging at her hand. "There's a waterfall near here, hundreds o' feet tall. You have to see it."

* * *

The blade slips, nicks his cheek.

He hisses through his teeth, and hears Rose sigh theatrically, dropping her head into her hands.

"If you would just use a _mirror-"_

"D'you know who uses mirrors?" He wheels around to look at her, scrubbing away welling blood on his cheek. "The Subspace Mantises of Deneb Four, that's who. Oh, they use mirrors. Have I _told _you about the time I thwarted a Subspace Mantis invasion?"

Rose glowers up at him through her lashes, curled fingers pressed against her cheekbones. "I got a feeling you're about to."

"Talking! That's it! Just talking! I _talked _them out of invading!" He jabs his razor at her, pacing back and forth. "If _that _isn't clever, I don't know what is. And then there were the… Oh, what were they… the _Zygons, _that's right, don't get me started on Zygons. Idiots, the lot of 'em."

"Yes. I know. You're very clever." Rose sighs and stretches. "Good _night."_

"Oi! Hey! Where're you goin'?"

"Sorry," Rose says, throwing an exasperated smile over her shoulder. "I caught this in previews. I'm gonna get some sleep."

He tries for a wounded look, but she's headed for the door already, so he resumes scraping the razor over his jaw.

"_Humans, _I'll tell you what," he mutters to the quiet TARDIS.

* * *

Trees. Hundreds of meters tall.

"Just when I think I've seen everything," she says, staring awestruck up at the towering branches.

(He'll never get tired of that look on her face.)

He grins. "You think this is everything? Oh, Rose. We're just getting started."

She smiles at that, but says only, "Can we climb them?"

He glances around. "Why not? No-one to tell us not to. No tree-climbing authorities 'round here, not last time I checked."

"Okay," she says, a little breathless, tilting up on her toes, peering up into the sun-streaked greenery. "Let's go, then, come on."

It's easy enough with the massive branches, and he follows quickly enough, though she's _good _at this and gets away from him a few times. He has to watch for that flash of blond hair, the sharp red of her shirt moving rapidly through the leafy foliage.

"Oi!" he calls, once, hoisting himself up onto another branch. "Slow it down a bit, would you?"

"Too fast for you, old man?" she tosses back, grinning down at him.

But she does slow down, and they settle down on a branch a couple of meters wide somewhere up the tree, stretch their legs out and lean back against the trunk.

"Trees," says Rose.

"Trees," he agrees.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

Their hands brush and tangle and tighten around each other.

"Afraid of heights?" he asks, peering over the edge.

"Course not," she replies, looping her arm through his. "Why, are you?"

"Course not," he echoes, indignant, and she grins at him.

"What, the big, bad Doctor can't possibly be afraid of things?" she asks, lifting an eyebrow. The dappled sunlight makes her eyes spark.

He thinks, _yes he can._

He says, "You're a bit of a nuisance, you know that?"

"You love it," she replies, archly.

She isn't wrong.

* * *

There's a massive storm, lightning and thunder and a torrential downpour soaking the world, and they stand in it, laughing.

"What's this, then?" Rose asks, pushing dripping hair out of her face.

"What's what?"

"This." She gestures at the stormy sky. "Aliens? Apocalypse? Rift in time?"

"Course not." He grins at her. "This? Just a thunderstorm."

"Oh," she says.

"Is that okay?"

"Little disappointing," she says, squinting through the rain. "'Just a thunderstorm'."

"Not really. C'mere."

He grabs her hand, pulls her down to the grass, and she laughs and yelps as they land side-by-side in the mud. "What are you _doing_?"

"Look," he says, pointing up, and the lightning blinks across the sky as vibrant as the sun, and the clouds roil and tangle and burn in the dark and Rose's breath hitches.

"Maybe not. Maybe not disappointing."

"You just weren't looking hard enough," he declares.

The water streams into his eyes, and when he blinks it away Rose is looking at him now, tucked up against his side with her arm curled round his. Without warning she leans over, tilts her head over his and presses her lips down against his mouth in a lingering, rain-damp kiss.

His eyes flutter shut, then open, wide and unblinking and inches from hers.

"Why'd you do that for?" he asks, with a micro tilt of his head. Her hand is resting near his ear, her fingers stroking the stubble of his hair.

"Dunno," she says. "Just did."

"Okay," he says.

She leans down and kisses him again, longer, and he lets her, resting a hand against the small of her back.

Then they lie under the stormy sky and watch the rain fall.

* * *

And here –

Here they are, spinning through time and space, with all of the universe spreading out around them in a spiderweb of alternate realities and timelines, as the TARDIS sings its song and space twists and tangles around them.

They've got a blanket spread out on the floor and sandwiches Rose's mother packed for them, a proper picnic (_domestic, _but he allows it), and more to see ahead of them.

Rose curls her arms around bent knees, staring up at the column of energy spinning up from the control panels. The light flickers back sharp off her face.

"This is nice."

He grins wide and bright as a star, and takes another bite of a sandwich.

Yes. Yes it is.

* * *

Disclaimer: None of it is mine. My own sandbox is still under construction, so I'm playing in this one for a bit.

Thanks for reading.


End file.
